Online Printed Intelligence workshop held

The idea was to bring the technology to the Indian subcontinent. This leverages the skills of the country's abundant human capital by creating a breakthrough for the empowerment of inclusive skill sets in the learning community through training programmes.

The attendees from the student fraternity had an immersive participation in the session. Over 110 students and faculty members were present. Participants of the workshop were from multiple disciplines: engineering, science and arts. Speakers from across the globe delivered sessions on printed intelligence and mentored the participants.

Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) Kerala is a Section 8 company of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Kerala, that focuses on skilling students and the general community to enhance their employability.

Printed Intelligence is a multidisciplinary technology that enables the integration of electronic functionality into everyday objects through printing technologies. 

While PI has been under research for over two decades in European countries and has now reached the product development and commercialisation phase, in India, PI is in the nascent stage and the government is proactive in exploring the possibilities of cross-border initiatives through bilateral means.

The need for smaller and lightweight electronic subsystems is increasing the possibility of adopting PI. The translation from populated electronics to Printed Intelligence and innovation of new segments for PI products are the driving factors for manufacturing PI-based subsystems, thus creating a realm of ingenious industrialisation through indigenous methodology in the arena of electronics spectrum to replace conventional electronics applications to out-of-the-box solutions, products and applications are the future of the economy with a futuristic proposition.

Due to the lack of expertise in this area, courses in PI are not common in Indian institutions and students rarely come across the term PI. However, academic courses and programmes that are a pre-requisite for PI are already well established in India, such as electronics-based programmes, material sciences, printing technology, new product development (NPD), entrepreneurship, etc. Therefore, if students are given basic training on the core PI concepts, it is possible to create a large workforce in this segment which will expedite the PI development in India.

The online workshop was meant for students and faculty members from colleges and polytechnics in Kerala. The objectives of the workshop were to introduce the basics of trending technology namely Printed Intelligence (PI) and its applications; to mentor the students to prepare a business plan for a PI product as a hands-on activity; to enable the students to be confident enough to take up their final year project in PI; to enthuse the students to consider PI as a promising domain for a dream career.

Dr Umer Salim, founder, I4 Technologies, gave the keynote address on introduction to printed intelligence. Dr Umer is the chair of Printed Intelligence in the Indian subcontinent, acclaimed by EU bodies from both the government and corporate world. He introduced the technology and emphasised the humungous scope of the technology. With videos of products developed by I4 Technology and commercialised in Dubai, he demonstrated the unique characteristics of PI products, namely flexibility and foldability.

I4 Technologies is into research, analysis and development in the domain of printed intelligence having an acclamation of more than 15 years in deep-tech disruptive technologies. I4 Technologies has decided to launch its Indian operations in 2025 in conjunction and collaboration with corporate and government sector entities.

Dr Raimo Korhonen, the former R&D Head of VTT Printed Intelligence Research, Finland, briefed the history of Printed Intelligence from Finland as early as in the year 2000. He traced the roadmap of research, education and manufacture of PI in Finland. He highlighted the events organised by PrintoCent cluster, specifically the InnoFest contest. He also mentioned that I4 Technologies is organising a series of such workshops as a precursor to organising an Indian version of InnoFest. 

Dr TKS Lakshmi Priya, academics head (skilling and training) I4 Technologies, started with a comparison between conventional electronics and printed electronics and then opened up the vast spectrum of PI applications. Among them, she gave specific use-cases for PI applications of flexible displays.

Dr Mark Holterman, a research scientist and professor of surgery and pediatrics, Illinois, is presently working on the disruptive technology to provide solutions to medical challenges including invasive vaccines, painless diagnosis, etc. He explained the business model canvas preparation process systematically.

To kick start the hands-on session for the students, Dr Mark listed out five challenging scenarios that presently require innovative solutions. He described each challenge and the students were to provide a solution by ideating a PI-based product and preparing a business plan. Dr TKS Lakshmi Priya and her team hand-held the students during the activity session in drafting their respective innovative products and their corresponding business plans. At the end of the session, students submitted their work online for evaluation. 

At the end of each talk, an engaging interaction took place between the participants and the speaker. Some of the speakers placed on record their appreciation for the quality of questions raised by the undergraduate student participants.

Observing the enthusiasm of the students, Dr Mark Holterman, the speaker from USA, announced a USD 50 award to the best submissions, one in each use-case, on the spot.